Deceased Crew Members / How will crew deaths be simulated? (threads merged)

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by 4Para

call me morbid

Consider it done.

[karamazovnew]

How can you call dead bodies in the freezer "eye-candy"?!! But the original question is not without merit (altough Dulcimus thinks otherwise). What happens to a dead crew, does his model simply dissapear? Do other crew members drag him somewhere else? And what about the injured? Can crew die while the medic tries to operate them? And what about the medic? does he run from injured to injured? Does he triage? Does he go personally to atend to incapacitated crew? This isn't eye candy, it's an issue that was created by the whole FPS camera thing. The devs must deal with such issues. And if there is a body somewhere, even if for just a few hours, it's normal they should think about where the poor fellow should be put. And let's face it, throwing him along with oil and debris out of an empty torpedo tube (although bad for morale) would be a good tactic in the first part of the war.

[JScones]

In all my SH3 playing days I have only ever had all dead or none dead, never some dead.

Now while I find this whole concept about priority #20, karamazovnew does raise some valid points. Recognising FPS for what they are, when someone gets shot "you" can usually patch them up. Quite arcadish (run over to injured man, press A, followed by X, followed by Y and voila!), but nonetheless possible.

So if I cop critical damage and choose to go for a look-see, what will I find? Will there be a bloodied body there waiting for me to drag him, or at least order another crewman to drag him, or will the game automatically take care of him, waiting only for me to give the "dispatch" order? This is a conundrum that the devs have created. They may not have even thought about it to this level.

And another thing, not all U-boats had qualified medical staff, at least beyond first aid. Injured crew tended to be dropped off at a milk cow docking, as the milk cow usually had higher skilled medicos. This adds another element of complexity to the whole idea. We know SH5 has milk cows, but will it also allow you to offload injured or sick crew?

Again, not stuff I personally care about, but as the devs have chosen to go down this path...

[Reece]

In all my SH3 playing days I have only ever had all dead or none dead, never some dead.

In SH3 Haven't you ever been shot at by aircraft and one or more on the conning tower men are killed, they show up dead (red) in the crew screen, right click on them and you have the option to bury them at sea.

[Ilpalazzo]

There were times where I left dead guys on the boat because I thought they were injured.

I'm not expecting a whole lot from the animations or anything. I wouldn't be surprised if the dead just disappeared. If there is a medic that does anything I'll bet you'd only ever see him bandaging the same guy over and over.

Here's another idea; Soylent Soup. The delicious taste would raise morale.

[Reece]

Here's another idea; Soylent Soup. The delicious taste would raise morale.

Not me, would just make me go green!! Excuse me while I pewk!!

[oscar19681]

I wonder why you couldnt bury a dead crew member at sea in sh-4 . I thought it was realistic in sh-3

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by karamazovnew

How can you call dead bodies in the freezer "eye-candy"?!!

Because it's getting bogged down in minutiae that doesn't serve any real purpose. If the crewmember is dead, he's dead. Click him and choose the bury at sea option. That's it. Done, finished, over. If you want to get really slick with it, splice in a little cut scene of a shrouded body being slid over the side. In my opinion, it's stupid to waste time and effort doing anything else.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

it's stupid to waste time and effort doing anything else.

I agree.

[FIREWALL]

In the few books I have that mention a death while on patrol.

They were buried at sea.

The only circumstance different was while leaving port and attacked by planes they and boat turned around and returned to port with dead.

I think SH-3 had it right. Keep it simple. Toss em over the side.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Reece

You are correct Ducimus, it's the same with movies, in the old days the eye candy was poor but the stories were great, nowadays the eye candy is excellent but the stories are generally crap, I definitely prefer the story (functionality) over eye candy, now if they could make both excellent ... as the Fonz would say ... Heyyy!!

I do believe eyecandy has its place, but functionality should always be held in greater priority over eyecandy. The instant eyecandy meets or exceeds the priority value or development time of functionality, what we'll probably end up with, is a Micheal Bay 'splosions version of a submarine game.

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Because it's getting bogged down in minutiae that doesn't serve any real purpose. If the crewmember is dead, he's dead. Click him and choose the bury at sea option. That's it. Done, finished, over. If you want to get really slick with it, splice in a little cut scene of a shrouded body being slid over the side. In my opinion, it's stupid to waste time and effort doing anything else.

Exactly!

[Sailor Steve]

Real life experience: While I was a radioman on a destroyer in Vietnam, we regularly did fire-support for the marines. In one instance they had two killed and one wounded, and asked us to transport them to Da Nang for proper disposal. For three days and two nights we had two body bags in one of our reefers. For hygenic reasons we took all the food out of that reefer and jammed it into the other one. I was serving my month as a mess cook (waiter and busboy) at that time. We never had to go near that reefer, but it was still spooky and creepy. I certainly wouldn't want uncooled bodies anywhere on my boat.

[pythos]

My educated guess is that once someone had passed, and the boat was more than half a day out from base, then the body would be buried at sea. Reason being, that a body starts decomposing once life functions stop. The vapors (yes there are vapors) are threats to health. A u-boat did not have much in the way of refrigerating units, certainly not big enough to store the deceased.

Now for some here that really ripped into the OP. He has a valid point. People did die on these boats, either from enemy action, or disease. IT HAPPENED.

The reference to the blood and gore of shooting up life boats was just mean. Though perhaps that should be implemented, and there being a HIGH probability of the crew turning in such a monster (which the Germans did do to such commanders). And your captian getting hung or shot.

In sh4 there was no burial at sea option, and I one time had to cruise with 5 dead crew members (killed by that god awful stupid bug where crew stayed on the bridge, even though the boat was under water, and a bomb went off killing all the bridge crew.) I felt that was just so unrealistic. I could not burry them.

Putting them in a torpedo tube I would think would be a very bad idea I would think. Unless the idea was to eject them out into the water.

Originally Posted by pythos

Putting them in a torpedo tube I would think would be a very bad idea I would think. Unless the idea was to eject them out into the water.

yes, that was the point. as i explained in my post when i made the statement, if you couldnt surface for whatever reason then the torpedo tube was the only way to get them off the boat.

the way i view the handling of dead bodies in the game is like the wat they handle going to the head, both are necessary and both are facts of life but both are equally not needed to be represented in the game at all nor should there be a need to see blood and body parts all over like a game of doom 3.

Originally Posted by pythos

Now for some here that really ripped into the OP. He has a valid point. People did die on these boats, either from enemy action, or disease. IT HAPPENED.

i agree with you on this because it is an interesting topic of discussion even though my personal opinion is it shouldnt be in the game.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by 4Para

would storing corpse of crew members have an effect on morale?? positive and negative?

Might make the soup a little chunkier and filling.